


It's Not Stalking If it's for Safety

by Sapphiremoonlight1



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: F/M, Gen, How Do I Tag, M/M, Rutabagas, Stalking not Stalking, i am so bad at tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22907752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphiremoonlight1/pseuds/Sapphiremoonlight1
Summary: Hayami, Zaizen and Ryoken spend the day stalking Ai and Yusaku around Den City. Akira doesn't know how he was roped into this.  More importantly who is the suspicious man running around with Hayami and him?
Relationships: Hayami/Zaizen Akira
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	It's Not Stalking If it's for Safety

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: Updated and edited like everything but the plot lol Eh, i should be working on other things but I'm not in mood to so I fixed the tenses and weird lines in this instead. Hayami needs more love anyway.

"Splat"

"Watch it!" Risa yells at the retreating figure. She can already feel the damping fabric sticking to her side. When she glances down her assumption is already proven right.

She bought this blouse last week, and it's ruined! Eh! Why did she volunteer to get lunch for the both of them? Why didn't she ask one of the temps to do the lunch run instead? She's Akira's assistant and Chief of Security! She shouldn't be running this kind of errand. 

"Here you go. Enjoy your food," the clerk drones shoving the crumpled paper bag through the truck window. Risa snatches it and stalks back towards Sol's looming corporate office. she can try to cover the stain with her blazer once she gets back to her office. 

"Come on! I want to get to the farm stand before it closes!" Whines the voice that has been haunting her since the whole debacle with the Ignis ended. Instinctively she scans around the street for any sign of said Dark Ignis. Not too far off she catches the modified Soltis walking down the street. Being at the top of Sol's security team comes in handy! She knows exactly what the AI looks like. 

He might be lacking a few layers but the frilly purple blouse is a dead give away. What responsible person would wear something that loud in public anyway?

Horrendous fashion sense aside. Risa needs to alert Zaizen that Ai is alive and roaming around outside of Sol's headquarters. With her target in sight, she tries to bland into the crowd as she trails after them. 

She has Zaizen on speed dial, so she can call him whenever she's enough to get an idea about what's going on. Once she's a good distance behind them by a crosswalk, she pulls out her phone.

Zaizen sighs on the other end of the line before asking, "What is it Hayami?"

"IfoundthedarkIgnishe'salive," Her sentence came out jumbled enough that even she didn't understand it.

"Can you repeat that please?" Zaizen says. Her target crosses onto a less active street. So she ducks behind a planter when he glances back in her direction. He looks away and playfully flings an arm around someone walking next to him. That's kind of worrisome. Does he know them?

Zaizen coughs on the other end of the phone and she snaps back into the conversation. 

"It's Ai! It's the Dark Ignis! He's still alive, and he's walking around the area of Sol Tech's headquarters with someone! She shouts, peering over the top of the planter to see if it's clear to keep following them.

"You're stressed and imagining things. Come back and I'll arrange for you to take the rest of the day off," Zaizen offers. Argh! He's not listening to her! She refuses to fail at protecting him a second time!

"No! How about you meet me and see for yourself?" she counters hiding in a nearby alleyway when the stranger stares back in her direction."They seem to be heading towards that farm stand that pops up not far from the office." 

Ai gleefully twirls the stranger around for a second before being scowled. The pouting Ignis then tugs his captive into the open stand. What could that ridiculous AI be doing with the stranger?

On his end Zaizen takes a deep, breathe and exhales, "Hayami stay where you are. I'm not going to bail you out if you get in trouble because you started stalking innocent civilians."The line cuts out after that. Why can't he believe her? She's only trying to protect him.

Her frustration almost gets her caught too. After she makes it across the street. Risa stumbles into a nearby recycle bin because she's not paying attention to her surroundings. She's Chief of Security goddamn it! That thought ends with her picking an ice cream wrapper out of her hair while trying to play off like that didn't happen.

It doesn't work though, a few chuckling office workers stroll by her. Screw them! There are more urgent matters at hand.

The pair vanishes out of sight while she's distracted. Risa scans around the street again for any hint of where they went but they were gone.

"They went that way," someone says interrupting her. Something about him is familiar, but she can't place it. He could be the son of someone she works with.

"Come on, they're getting away." The stranger continues heading in the direction he had been pointing. She deserves to be shown up for getting distracted like that. 

"Wait! Why are you following them?"She asks about getting into step with the stranger.

"The shorter one is a friend of mine. I'm making sure he's okay."Somehow the sentient didn't seem right coming from this guy. Especially with the tense look on his face. Is this creep actually stalking them? 

He snatches her arm and jerks her behind a planter. The strangers pulls a little too hard and she ends up hitting stumbling onto the sidewalk. A few passersby send them funny looks as they walk by.

"You're incompetent aren't you?" the stranger asks peering around the other side of the planter.

"Hayami!" Zaizen shouts rushing over right before she can reprimand the weirdo for manhandling her. He stares at the stranger before offer to help her back up. "Hayami what are you doing?"

Now is her chance! Risa peeks around the planter spotting the AI and his captive walking back towards the farm stand. Promptly she hops to her feet.

"Zaizen look! There he is!" She points towards the AI scrutinizing some leeks.

"Shush! Are you trying to get caught?" The stranger sneers turning back around.

"And who are you?" Zaizen demands staring back at him suspiciously.

"Nobody, just a concerned friend."

"Right so why are two follo"- She tones out the argument going on behind her to observe the AI. Why did it look like it was asking the stranger for his opinion on which produce is better? Why isn't he trying to get away?

The rogue Soltis glances in their direction and the identifying marker on its neck catches the sun just right. It gleams unnaturally for a moment before the Ignis looks elsewhere. 

The uncanniness of the Soltis has nothing on her imaginary version of Akira. She misses Ai offering the stranger a stray flower because she's offered her own. 

"Risa, darling I bought you a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Though they are nothing to your beauty," Akira says, offering her the bouquet of colorful glittering petals. Hell, it looks like he walked through a gale of glitter too. 

Absentmindedly she makes her way closer to the pair in an attempt to hear them and in a vain attempt to ignore her sparkling boss.

"Hayami! Come back," The real Zaizen calls while their stranger follows behind her. 

"Is she okay?" inquiries the stranger from outside of her field of heart framed vision.

"Give her a minute. She gets like this sometimes," Zaizen replies with an audible sigh. 

Oops, she got lost in her fantasies again. Come on, Risa, think what you were doing before that minor distraction. She does a quick scan over the various containers of fruits and vegetables and spots the obnoxious AI dancing around with some gourds. Right! She and Zaizen are trying to find out what the Ignis is up to.

"Are we done here?" The hostage asks, sounding bored.

"Only if you want me to stock the fridge again," Ai replies with wide grin.

"..."

"Great! Now what do you think of this rutabaga?"

The creep tugs her away from the stand placing the them out of hearing range. She's too perplexed about what happened to make a fuss about it. Eh, she can refer to the stranger running around with her as creep to keep from confusing herself.

"Hayami let's go back to work. Now!" Zaizen demands tugging on the cuff of her blouse to get her to follow.

"No!" she replies pulling her arm away. Risa cannot understand why he's ignoring the AI that tried to assassinate him. It wasn't even that long ago either!

"Come on!" She grabs the stranger and hauls him after their targets. The AI and his...honestly, she's not sure at this point, check out and start to heading in a different direction.

When Risa notices that she grabbed the stranger instead of her boss, she drops him immediately. This whole day has been bizarre enough.

All three of them continue to follow after the pair into a neighboring shopping mall. The AI seems way too overjoyed to window shop. He eagerly drags his poor hostage in and out of every store he can find, pointing out any mildly shiny object in sight.

"Hayami! I have a meeting I need to be at," Zaizen comments, using his hands to avoid making eye contact with some of the people wondering around them. 

Eventually the two step into a clothing store. 

"But Yu-chan! Don't I look fabulous already?" Ai whines insulted by the more casual looking clothing his hostage shoves at him.

"You already agree to this. Stop complaining and try them on," the stranger replies, pushing the Soltis into a dressing room and closing him inside it.

The creep gears up to add some snide comment of his own, but she knocks him into a wall on accident. 

Unaware the pair keep going in and out of the dressing room with various combinations of clothing. 

Could the Ignis be planning to alter its appearance, so it can infiltrate Sol Tech again?

The two glance over in their direction. In a panic to not get caught, she shoves a lovely pearl top at the stranger causing him to topple over the rack behind him. Is the guy like ten pounds? He shouldn't have fallen over that hard.

She starts to apologize for knocking him down, but the shiny version of Akira appears next to her beaming.

"Risa honey you look stunning in that blouse. I can't wait to escort you to the company party next week." Somehow her version of Zaizen is equal parts posh and glitter. He even comes with animated sparkles of love and affection like he walked out of shojo anime...It is possible that her fantasies are getting out of hand.

"Does this happen frequently? She might want to see someone about it."

"I tried, it didn't work."

She shrugs off the glitter and hearts to focus on what is happening around her. "Hey! Come on, we're not done!"

The Ignis and his hostage are getting away while they're sitting here dawdling! Her fantasies can wait until she's sure Zaizen is safe for good! Her target skips out of the store merrily. He's skipping and bouncing around the whole way out. So, she's not the only oddball around here? No! She can't think like that. He's threatening humanity!

"Hayami! We need to get back to work are we done here?" Zaizen says, crossing his arms and giving her a disapproving looking.

"Where did they go?" She asks the stranger. Zaizen can stand there trying to reproach her all he wants. She's going to do this her way. 

It would be sensible to get the stranger's name. But the shady glint in his eyes and the bizarre way his hair spikes reminds her of someone she doesn't want to be on the wrong side of. That's enough reason for her not to ask right now.

He points them towards the exit. Good, now they just need to catch up. So she snatches both their wrists and runs as fast as she can through the exit. Ignoring their disgruntled complaints as she does so. Today Risa is the boss!

They make it out of the mall in one piece. The guys grab their arms back and glare at her, but she doesn't pay it any mind. The AI and his companion disappear around a far off corner. At this point it would be fair to assume the stranger and Ai have some kind of relationship with how chummy they seem to be. He's definitely not a hostage then.

Damn it! They need to catch up. It's taken Risa this long to figure out the teen isn't a hostage. They can only assume what their dynamic actually is. Did he help the AI takeover Sol tech? Did he bring the AI back? What kind of human would work with that kind of AI? Does he even know that wasn't a normal Soltis?

"It appears like she's having some sort of existential crisis," The stranger remarks, quirking an eyebrow at her. There's a knowing twist in his expression that concerns her. The stranger she's been dragging around remains another question she should get an answer to.

"In that case can we stop stalking them now? It's getting a little ridiculous!" Zaizen exasperates and then glances at the other man."Why is he here?"The stranger shrugs off the question following after their targets.

"I'm not going to get an answer to that question am I?" This time it's her turn to shrug. She's elated to have someone even vaguely supportive of her mission (stalking). With that she runs after him ducking into an alleyway ever now and again to keep from being detected. Zaizen reluctantly follows her lead as they all run in and out of hiding places as they follow along.

The stranger hides around the opposing side of the sidewalk usually behind a planter or trash bin while she and Zaizen stick together.

That becomes harder to do as the Ai and his companion get closer and closer to a spacious courtyard. Great, how do they work around this? People in the area know what she and Zaizen look like. They'll probably look suspicious if they keep following.

"Don't. I told you we're friends. They know what I look like too," the stranger says quickly derailing her plan to get him to move closer. Is she that easy to read that a rando off the street can predict her next move?

"Master, can I ask why you are hiding behind a planter? Not that I mind your new-found interest in flora. However, it appears to be misplaced," says yet another eccentric stranger to their companion.

"Spec-I didn't see you there," the first stranger stumbles over the others name. Wait, pale blue eyes, peculiar white hair, and a suit that was hardly altered from his Link Vrains persona. For Pete's sake the stranger almost called him by his name! This second stranger leaning over their hiding place is the Hanoi's second in command! This day either can't get any better or worse. At this point she's not sure which is better with another threat in such close proximity.

So, the stranger is one of the Hanoi then, great. That would be where she recognizes him from but who is he and how does he know either of the two they’re stalking?

"I can see that sir. If I may. It is not the best idea to hide behind planters with that cafe around." Something in how he says that makes her want to worn everyone in the area about this guy.

"You're right," The stranger agrees and looks back to them smirking before walking off with Spectre. She moves to stop them, but something stops her.

"Don't Hayami. Let them go," Zaizen says as the two disappear into the crowd of people around the courtyard."Come on, Let's go back to work."

"You've been telling me that all day why aren't you more concerned about any of this!" She shouts gesturing wildly towards the cafe where the Ignis and his companion are hanging around.

The stranger sits at a table with a hot dog while Ai chatters away with the person running the cafe. The normalcy of it all seems so bizarre. 

"Stardust Road is lovely this time of year." The glitter posh version of Zaizen interrupts. This time it's equip with a couple of brown bags and a tray of drinks. Neither of whom are spared the romantic treatment either. Both are drenched in more sparkles than Zaizen himself. What did that say about her? That she fantasizes about having everything doused in glittered.

"Come on love." Glitter Zaizen coos gesturing for her to follow him away from the cart. Behind him she can see the two people she's stalking. Right, she needs to focus.

"Hey, Isn't that Zaizen and his lovesick assistant?" Ai asks pointing in their direction.

"Ai what nonsense are you talking about?" The teen replies dully.

The Ignis falls into the chair next to him. "Oh, Zaizen's head of security is heads over heels in love with him and hasn't worked up the courage confess so she constantly does idiotic things in front of him to try to hide it. Once..."The Ignis starts getting into some story about her. Hey! Just because she's not there, doesn't mean he can go around spouting her feelings. How impolite!

"Okay I didn't need to know that, and I'm not going to ask why you know that." Good man this Yu-whatever his name is.

"Hayami," Zaizen says trying to get her attention."Let's go back to work, I'll explain this on the way."Without waiting he turns and begins walking away from her. Feeling guilty for hauling him around, she dutifully follows her boss back to their corporate office. Neither of them said anything until they reach his office.

"So, Ai is in fact alive, and I've known for sometime now. Playmaker and him made sure to inform not that long ago and while I have my concerns. I trust Playmaker is maintaining a skilled eye on him," Zaizen explains propping his elbow on his desk.

"What?! I'm your head of security! How come I wasn't told anything about this?!" she shouts.

"Their idea. The less people that know about the Ignis', the less chance of anything potentially catastrophic happening. Or that's how Ai phrased it, they were vague about that part."

"You mean you're going to let him off like that?" she huffs, and he sinks further into his chair.

"Yes, he and someone else have been helping us improve security in Link Vrains since he came back. There isn't much Sol Tech or I can do to stop him anyway. We that found out the hard way when he attacked us before." He stops explaining to give it a second to sink in."Who was that stranger we were running around with?"

"I have no idea," She confesses. Hayami might have spent the day helping a cyber terrorist stalk an overpowered AI without batting an eyelash.

"All things considered, I have a pretty good idea who that was but for right now I have another question in mind," He says glancing up at her amused. "So lovesick assistant?"

* * *

“what are you even planning to do with this rutabaga?" he asks, pulling it out of its grocery bag.

"I'm thinking of utilizing it as a model for my new link 6 since you wont give me The Arrival back," Ai whines sticking his tongue out at him."It's going to be awesome too! All dressed up like the almighty Playmaker with a rutabaga for head." 

If that's how he's going to be, he's never getting The Arrival back. He'd never tell anyone but sometimes Ai brings out a cattiness Yusaku never knew he had. 

It's not like he was going to let that damn card see the light of day again anyway, but still.

"It fits better then most of the cards in yours!" Ai teases, putting away the rest of the groceries they bought. "So you think our stalkers figured out we knew they were there?"

"Ryoken did as soon as Specter showed up. As for Zaizen and his assistant, I think your comment about her being lovesick tipped him off," Yusaku explains. Though he might have tipped Spectre off that his master was following them like a rabid dog, again. 

"What did we do to get our own personal stalkers? Wasn't Ryoken enough? Now we have two more!" Ai huffs laying down on the kitchen floor in a fit. 

Attack and threaten to delete people for one thing. Ai pouts and keeps talking. He already knows why. 

"Conceivably Zaizen will keep her from doing that again. I hope, or I'm obtaining a restraining order!"

It's annoying enough living with Ryoken's stalker tendencies as it is. This morning they found a few bugs outside their apartment. He'll flip if Sol starts doing something similar. 

"I have an idea," Ai says sitting up, with the same mischievous smile that tells Yusaku he doesn't want to know.

"Ai no."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure why fantasy Akira ended up so glittery and uptight lol
> 
> Edit: note to self run with the glitter, makes life more fun
> 
> 2/26  
> 8/18


End file.
